VICE-captain Tom Rockliff admits the Brisbane Lions are worried by successive poor performances, but have to lick their wounds and move on or risk wasting a promising season.
A weary Rockliff fronted the media at Brisbane's South Bank on Monday morning, less than 24 hours after the Lions were mauled by West Coast in Perth.
He used words like "poor" and "disappointing" to describe the 98-point loss, but said the Lions had to quickly look forward.
The shellacking came eight days after the Lions were lucky to escape with an 11-point win against Gold Coast.
It was a fortnight that did not sit well with Rockliff.
"I think you'd be definitely a little bit worried about the last two weeks' performances, but in saying that we've got five weeks to finish the year off really strong and we know that," he said.
"This week is a short turnaround so we're going to be massive on recovery and doing the little things right."
The Lions returned from Perth at 3am on Monday and immediately began preparations for hosting Richmond at the Gabba on Saturday night.
Rockliff said he expected changes to be made to the team after the sub-par performance against the Eagles.
"It was really disappointing. We went over there with the goal to walk away with the four points," he said.
"To win the clearances (56-39) but to be so heavily scored against was quite disappointing. Our ball use was quite poor yesterday.
"They're a good outfit and we're obviously building towards something. That was pretty poor. You don't lose by 98 points just on a bad day."
Rockliff said the result had undone some of the good work by the Lions, who are slowly recovering from a disastrous past two years where they won just 11 times.
He was full of praise for Eagles ruckman Nic Naitanui, who tore the Lions apart on Sunday, saying he "won't be surprised if he's standing up there with the Brownlow one day. He is a freak".
The Lions will welcome back suspended midfielder Daniel Rich to face the Tigers, while full-back Matt Maguire is undergoing scans for an ankle injury.
"We've got to fix things in our mob and not worry so much about what they're (Richmond) doing and get our game going first," Rockliff said.
Michael Whiting covers Brisbane Lions news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_mikewhiting
